SO. I have a recipe for you today, which I am ridiculously excited to present.

I haven’t posted a recipe in quite some time. Obviously, I have been eating- and cooking, even!- every day. Quinoa here, tofu there. A dash of tamari. Some broccoli and nooch. Delicious, sure, but I am not trying to waste the Internet’s time acting like my bowls are some sort of revelation. I’ve been busy as heck (Podcast! Book proposal! Wedding! Moving! Training! Clients!) and that is truthfully when I am most prone to food ruts. This roast was a personal game changer for me, and even aside from the pandora’s box of recipe formulation it re-opened, the flavors are completely delicious and perfect for these waning days of Summer.

I really do believe you could make this recipe with any old raspberries and cauliflower, but these farmer’s market fresh beauties made the color of the recipe pop as much as the flavor. What can I say?- visuals are important to me. White cauliflower is great, but give me hues of orange or purple and my brain automatically codes whatever dish is being made as “fancy”.

With the onset of my gym’s new strength program, I am noticing a bit more muscle soreness than I am used to. After four months of doing more reps with lighter weights, I am back to the heavy barbell work and it is amazing and challenging and although my muscles are clearly more defined these days I can definitely see that I have lost strength when my focus shifted away from Olympic Lifts. My heaviest lifts are lighter than they once were, and the day after I go for it, my body definitely feels it.

When I feel sore more often, I get proactive because I know there is no need to be in pain all the time. I jump up on my turmeric and ginger. I make sure to eat within an hour of finishing my workouts. I pay attention to my protein- which conveniently brings me to my new friend: bean pasta.

Before I delve further, I have the following words to say: I am in no way affiliated with Explore Asian, the company that makes theses pastas. I am not paid to write this post. I did not get the product for free.

And now:

Holy shit this stuff is great.

One serving of your average pasta off the shelf contains 6.7 grams of protein. That’s not terrible (the same as an egg, roughly), but it’s certainly not great. One serving of this edamame and mung bean pasta contains 24 grams of protein.

TWENTY FOUR.

The same amount as a scoop of my favorite protein powder.

And it tastes great.

That’s awesome.

The first thing I thought of making when I decided to up my protein a bit was a green + grain + bean bowl using this pasta as a grain. (yes, I know beans aren’t grains, but use your imagination. Pasta is certainly grain like) I used fresh produce from my farmers market, my special pasta, roasted chickpeas, and a quick and simple tahini sauce and pulled together the best damn lunch I’ve had in quite some time. Here’s the recipe:

Spread your chopped cauliflower on one half of the baking sheet, and your chickpeas on the other. Pour two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar over the chickpeas and liberally coat the whole pan in spray oil. Add a dash of sea salt and fresh ground pepper.

Bake for 25 minutes

While your beans and cauliflower are baking, set a pot of water to boil on the stove. Cook pasta according to instructions.

Using a peeler, shave your carrots into long strips

De-stem your kale, and lightly steam on your stovetop for 3-5 minutes

To make your sauce: mix tahini, water, apple cider vinegar, ginger and miso in a blender. Puree until smooth.

Split all ingredients except sauce between four large bowls.

Drizzle sauce on top of your mix and enjoy! This keeps well in the fridge and is great as a leftover lunch!